Monday, June 04, 2012

Just received this callout for an Anarchist People of Color gathering in NOLA later this year, which i figured i'd share with you all:

Aah, it’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for: While current paradigms of
social, political and economic oppression thrash against their imminent
demise, taking the planet down with them, we have an opportunity to rise
through the cracks and build a new future.

APOCalypse will gather people of color together to discuss, build and share
radical anti-authoritarian practices based on autonomy, egalitarian
relationships, and justice. This July, we hope to bring together a couple
hundred friends, comrades, family members and strangers to New Orleans,
Louisiana, to celebrate, re-map, and craft our anti-authoritarian visions
and skills for the years to come.

Through parties, plenaries, workshops, panels, roundtables and space for
impromptu discussions, we hope to create space to discuss what it means to
organize as radicals and anarchists; the future of indigenous solidarity;
people-of-color movement history; science fiction; queerness; and
conversations on racialization. We’ll have childcare, a kids’ track, an
elders’ circle, and a healing justice center to stay sane and together for
the long run.

We, as Anarchist People of Color (APOC), share a loose set of politics
being anti-authoritarian and a common identity as people of color. We are
not a formal organization, political party, non-profit, charity, committee,
church group, dance troupe, etc…

We, the coordinators of this convergence, know each other either directly
or indirectly from years of organizing, and through APOC connections. Many
of us met almost 10 years ago at the first national APOC conference in
Detroit, Michigan. We are excited to reconnect, reassess, reunite and meet
new people. We aim for this convergence to not just be a reunion though but
a multi-generational, multi-dimensional gathering that can offer something
for almost every anarchist or politically radical person of color out there.

We hope that participants are looking for dialogues, methods, and theories
that resist oppression by understanding the root causes of injustice –
while developing strategies for ecologically, politically, socially, and
economically sustainable communities. Not everyone coming will be or has to
be an anarchist. We just hope that participants will want to build power in
ways that are not hierarchical, racist, and heteropatriarchal, but are
instead collaborative and horizontal.

We don’t intend this convergence to be a place to hammer out points of
unity, build a formal anything or come close to representing all anarchist
people of color. We hope that we’ll just get a chance to meet, dream, learn
and make some amazing plans.

*Please note that we are organizing with and inviting people of color only.*

The convergence will be in downtown New Orleans, in the Marigny/7th Ward
area. The registration point will be at 1024 Elysian Fields Ave, 70117.

GET INVOLVED! To participate in the convergence, please register at *
www.apocconvergence.info/registration*so
that we can prepare for your stay.

This July, we hope to bring together a couple hundred friends, comrades, family members and strangers to New Orleans, Louisiana, to celebrate, re-map, and craft our anti-authoritarian visions and skills for the years to come.

We’ll have parties, plenaries, workshops, panels, roundtables and space for impromptu discussions on what it means to organize as anarchists; the future of indigenous solidarity; people-of-color movement history; science fiction; queerness; and conversations on racialization. We’ll have childcare, a kids’ track, an elders’ circle, and a healing justice center to stay sane and together for the long run.

We are currently accepting proposals for workshops, spaces to chill, activities, performances, and events. We want there to be facilitated spaces to talk shop, and, also spaces to just chill, reconnect with old friends and socialize with new. (Please submit proposals to host a chill space so we can make these happen!)

Please note that this convergence is by and for self identified people of color only.

ABOUT THE CONVERGENCE:
It’s been almost 10 years since the first national APOC conference in Detroit, Michigan. We are excited to reconnect, reassess and reunite and meet. We aim for this convergence to not just be a reunion but a multi-generational, multi-dimensional gathering that can offer something for almost every radical person of color out there.

We think it’s important for us to come together to celebrate our successes, learn from our failures, and analyze our roles in local, national, international, and dare we say, intergalactic movement building. We also think that it’s a good opportunity to talk face to face, and not just facebook to facebook.

We don’t intend this convergence to be a place to hammer out points of unity, build a formal anything or come close to representing all anarchist people of color. We just hope that we’ll get a chance to meet, dream, learn and make some amazing plans

PROPOSAL GUIDELINES:
Please consider and answer the following questions in your proposal to facilitate or host a workshop, space, activity, performance, or event. We will try to read everything we receive from you; it would be helpful to us if you limited your proposal to 1000 words/2 pages.

Name of workshop, space, activity, discussion, performance or event

Describe the content/topic of what you are proposing.

Please read over our tracks in BOLD below. Is there an existing track your proposal could fit within? Is there a track you’d like to see that doesn’t already exist?

How is this a kid friendly space or not? And if not, is there a way we can support you to be more kid friendly? *Note: there is a kids & youth track in the making, so molding your workshop to create space for kids is not mandatory.

How are you preparing for differently abled bodies? Is there a way we can support you to do so?

Do you need or want support in structuring and/or running what you propose? Are there other resources you will need? (For example, an easel, projector, markers, etc.) Sorry, we are unable to provide funds at this time.

Many of the topics and issues we end up talking about at APOC events can be triggering or bring up difficult emotions for many. How do you plan for your session to be able to adequately hold space for people and/or address conflict? Are there any triggers you can anticipate and advise people of at the beginning of your session?

How will your workshop/event be committed to anti-sexist, anti-racist, anti-classist, queer politics?

How is your proposal specifically related to APOC?

Please include the best way to reach you: your telephone number, email, etc. and email your proposals to: programming.apocconvergence@gmail.com

DREAMING AWAKE: visions for 2012 & beyond (also known as the SCI-FI TRACK)

WINGNUT TRACK

-and others to come based on submissions that we receive…

THEORY, ACTION, AND STRATEGIES OF ANARCHISM
This track will focus on some of the basic tenets, theories and practices of anarchism, both western and non-western. Workshops and discussions will address how anarchism relates to Left movements, labor unions, the non-profit industrial complex (social services/ the shadow state), membership and base-building organizations, academia, etc. This is a good place for people to talk strategy and build nationally.

This track is dedicated to analyzing and re-inventing horizontal organizing structures and direct action tactics we’ve used to challenge capitalism, the state, and other coercive systems. Because a critical part of anarchist theory in action is the work of creating transformational healing and justice; this track is committed to envisioning and discussing strategies to build and sustain autonomous communities by confronting and addressing gendered, raced, and classed violence; on institutional and interpersonal levels.

ARTISTIC COMMUNICATION, EXPRESSION, CONNECTION
This is the track to geek-out about the history of radical art, as well as the track to create new work and share techniques, skills, and maybe a harrowing wheatpasting story or two. How have performances, paintings, pirate radio stations, fighting arts, dance, and sculptures incited, propelled, or supported critical dialogue, movement, or action historically or in your own practice? How do we hold and honor those artists and revolutionary movements who came before us without commodifying their images? What is the role of social media — its liberatory potential alongside its dangers?

OUR IDENTITIES, OUR LIBERATION?
Identities categorize, define, divide, inspire and unite us. In them, we seek refuge, rebellion, commonality, and history. We defy, defend, betray and blend the borders of our belonging. We often organize in their names and speak from their positions. But when do we own our identities, and when do they own us?
In this track, we trace and interrogate the lineage of “people of color” organizing in the US. We seek to understand how we relate as the landscape constantly changes around us. Where and what is our firm place to stand on — being black, being immigrant, being mixed-race, being indigenous, being queer, being working class, being a POC? What does stability bring and then, what does instability offer? What strengths, what hazards, what possibilities exist?

PREPARING OURSELVES FOR THE COMING APOCALYPSE
Ours is a dystopic age: honeybees dying, elemental catastrophes and the rise of disaster capitalism, global climate distortions, cities emptying. We know we have to see this birth of a new world (dis)order through, hasten the collapse of old structures that keep us caged, and yet, we have to survive to do it.

This track asks us to consider the long haul: aging, capacity/ disability, parenting/ family, ownership. As we get older and still work to build this revolution, how do we fight burnout; mend and rejuvenate our bodies, minds and spirits; and build networks of support to do unpaid revolutionary work? As we build a new world in the old, let’s reflect on our failures, excesses, successes and lessons from utopian experiments like collectivization, land trusts, homeschooling, polyamory, back-to-the-land ventures, squatting, organizing the rich, and organizing the poor. You tell us, what else have you tried?

DREAMING AWAKE: VISIONS FOR 2012 & BEYOND (also known as the SCI-FI TRACK)
Langston Hughes said, “books had been happening to me.” This is the track where we ask each other what would Nalo Hopkinson, Samuel Delany, and Octavia Butler do? Where we hatch our escape plans, swap the survival skills that comic books imparted to us, and imagine what color spandex Neruda’s angels of bread would rock. Proposals submitted for this track might be more in the vein of nerdy chill sessions, writing alternate endings for our favorite sci-fi adventures, or they might be skillshares on queering mathematics and bending space-time (is that even a thing? let us know!). What kinds of things does your “imagination dare to dream when (pronoun) is sleeping”?

WINGNUT TRACK
You must self-identify as wingnut to gather and hold space here. You know who you are. It’ll be fun. Secret handshake, tin foil hats… show up, make it realer than real.